NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to accord urgent
hearing on a plea challenging the January 7 order of the Delhi high
court which had disposed of a petition seeking to ban the trailer
of upcoming movie, 'The Accidental Prime
Minister'.

The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed
by Justice A K Sikri which said the matter would come up for
hearing in the regular course.

The plea in the apex court has sought stay on exhibition of trailer
of the film on YouTube and to suspend the release and exhibition of
the movie during pendency of the matter.

The high court on January 7 had disposed of the writ petition
against the trailer but left it open for petitioner to file a
public interest litigation (PIL).

The appeal against the January 7 order was filed by petitioner
Pooja Mahajan in the top court on Wednesday, hours after a division
bench of the high court had dismissed the PIL which had sought a
ban on both -- the film and its trailer -- alleging it defamed the
constitutional post of Prime Minister.

The appeal, filed through advocate A Maitri, has claimed that "at
present if the film 'The Accidental Prime Minister' is allowed to
be released then it will cause unaccountable damage to the name and
fame of the office of Prime Minster of India".

It has alleged that Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC)
should not have given certification to the film as actors have
performed the "character of public personalities", like Manmohan
Singh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi
which constitutes an offence under section 416 (cheating by
personation) of the Indian Penal Code.

"It is a known fact that film producers have not taken any
consent/permission from Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul
Gandhi to perform their characters or to perform their political
life or to dress up in the same way as they had been doing in their
normal life or to copy their voice in any manner," the plea has
alleged.

It further claimed that it "seems that film makers, producers have
made an attempt to make commercial gains and the act of
'impersonation' have been committed deliberately to defame the
office of Prime Minister just to hype the excitement amongst the
prospective viewers".

"The release of film is likely to cause unaccountable damage to
high profile public personalities i.e. Manmohan Singh, Sonia
Gandhi," it claimed, adding, "it seems that film has been produced
in a selected manner and it clearly shows that it's a political
propaganda with some other motives".

It alleged that promo of the film showed that the movie has been
produced "simply to damage the image" of Singh.

A division bench of the high court had on Wednesday rejected the
PIL seeking ban on the movie and its trailer saying the petitioner
has no locus standi to file the plea and private interest was
involved in it.

The petitioner had alleged in the high court that provisions of the
Cinematograph Act were being misused and the film producer has
released the trailer affecting the image of the office of the prime
minister and giving a bad name to it at the national and
international level.

Advocate Sangram Patnaik, appearing for film producers Sunil Bohra
and Dhaval Gada, had told the high court that the plea was not
maintainable and how the production house was not made a party in
it.

The plea has arrayed the Centre, through the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting, the Central Board of Film
Certification (CBFC), Google (India) and YouTube as parties.